CAROL GILLIGAN 1936 - present

PIONEER OF GENDER STUDIES Worked with Erik Erikson Did research with Lawrence Kohlberg Criticized Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development Famous for her work in psychological and moral development of girls Taught at Harvard for 30 years; was first professor of gender studies there

Model Intervention & Prevention Projects Strengthening Healthy Resistance & Courage in Girls Programs Women Teaching Girls/Girls teaching Women Retreats In Our Own Voices Workshops Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology & Girl’s Development

MORALITY AND GENDER Male approach is that individuals have basic rights and one must respect the rights of others Morality imposes restrictions on what once can do Justice orientation Female approach is that people have responsibilities towards others Morality is an imperative to care for others Responsibility orientation

STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT Selfish Stage Belief in Conventional Morality 3. Post-Conventional Stage

MORE ABOUT STAGES Young girls start out with a selfish orientation; then learn to care for others Women learn that it is wrong to act in their own interests; others’ interests are more important Learn that it is just as wrong to ignore their own interests as it is to ignore others’ interests; learn this through connecting with others

In a Different Voice Classic groundbreaking work Women are different from men; should not be studied with the same criteria Criticized Freud & Kohlberg

THE IMPORTANCE OF VOICE To have a voice is to be human. To have something to say is to be a person. But speaking depends on listening and being heard; it is an intensely relational act. By voice I mean something like what people mean when they speak of the core of the self. Voice is natural and also cultural. It is composed of breath and sound, words, rhythm, and language. and voice is a powerful psychological instrument and channel, connecting inner and outer worlds. (p. xvi)

QUOTES The elusive mystery of women's development lies in its recognition of the continuing importance of attachment in the human life cycle. (p. 23) As we have listened for centuries to the voices of men and the theories of development that their experience informs, so we have come more recently to notice not only the silence of women but the difficulty in hearing what they say when they speak. Yet in the different voice of women lies the truth of an ethic of care, the tie between relationship and responsibility, and the origins of aggression in the failure of connection. (p. 174)

ANOTHER QUOTE Joining this understanding of women's psychological development with theories of human development which turn out to be theories about men, I have arrived at the following working theory: that the relational crisis which men typically experience in early childhood occurs for women in adolescence, that this relational crisis in boys and girls involves a disconnection from women which is essential to the perpetuation of patriarchal societies, and that women's psychological development is potentially revolutionary not only because of women's situation but also because of girls' resistance. (p. xxiii)